For the chef

[LizStreithorst]

This did not come out of my head. I found the recipe on the internet. The only thing I did differently is I made my own seafood stock from some snow crab legs that I'd boiled up. The crab legs were so good that I couldn't let the liquid go to waste. I reduced it and froze it and used it making this. Until I made this I thought that Coq au Vin and beef bourginon were the best things I made.

This is great for company if you do the prep work in advance. It about makes itself so you can socialize rather being stuck in the kitchen. If you don't like spicy hot, leave out the cayenne. The sausage itself has enough heat for the faint of stomach.

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 lb andouille sausage
1 large onion chopped
2 ribs celery diced
1/2 green pepper and 1/2 red pepper diced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
1 1/2 cups rice
1 can diced tomato with juice
2 cups chicken or sea food broth (home made is better)
1/2 lb fresh shrimp pealed
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
3 chopped green onions

Preheat oven to 350
Brown chicken in olive oil in a heavy pot then remove
add sasuage, onion, celery, bell pepper, thyme, marjoram. paprika, salt and cayenne. Cook until onions are tender (about 5 minutes)
add rice, tomatoes with juice and broth and bring to a biol
Put it all into a casserole dish and top with the chicken
Cover and bake for 40 minutes or until rice is tender
Stir in shrimp, parsley and green onion.
cover and cook for 5 to 7 minutes until the shrimp turn pink

Trust me. Everyone will think that you're a master chef.

[discuspaul]

That sounds real good, Liz - seems like sort of a combo of Paella & Jumbalaya.

When I get a bit more time, I'll post my own recipe for bouillabesse - a great seafood dish to serve with a fresh baguette.

[LizStreithorst]

I'd like that very much, Paul. I'm embarrassed to say that I've only heard of it. I don't know what it is. And I thought that I was sophisticated for a country girl.

Your lamb thing sounded good, but I don't know how to grill. (oh the shame)

[discuspaul]

If you like lamb, you don't have to grill it- you can just roast it in the oven instead, rather than BBQ it - turns out just as nice.

As for the bouillabesse - it's like Italian Cioppino, if you've heard of that. It's basically a gourmet-type fish/seafood chowder - originated in Marseilles, France, I believe - tastes fantastic and sticks to the ribs ! Your guests would love it !

My recipe called for shrimp/prawns, scallops, lobster pieces, a good white fish, mussels, and clams - in an Anise, or Ouzo, or Sambuca flavoured tomato sauce with fresh lemon zest & juice, which is so good, imo, that you'll be scraping it all up with your slices of fresh french baguette bread.
I've got to organize my thoughts about the ingredients, and how to layer it up, but I'll get around to posting it soon if you wish.

[Trier20]

I'd like that very much, Paul. I'm embarrassed to say that I've only heard of it. I don't know what it is. And I thought that I was sophisticated for a country girl.

Your lamb thing sounded good, but I don't know how to grill. (oh the shame)

Along with what Paul said I suggest searing it first to lock juices in. And it with all the bits on that searing pan you can make a nice sauce with some garlic shallots and red wine. Reduce the wine down until there is just barely anything and remove it from the heat. Then whisk in some butter. There you have a nice buerre rouge to top the lamb with. You can also cook some asparagus in with the wine as it reduces. Makes one hell of a meal!

[LizStreithorst]

If you like lamb, you don't have to grill it- you can just roast it in the oven instead, rather than BBQ it - turns out just as nice.

As for the bouillabesse - it's like Italian Cioppino, if you've heard of that. It's basically a gourmet-type fish/seafood chowder - originated in Marseilles, France, I believe - tastes fantastic and sticks to the ribs ! Your guests would love it !

My recipe called for shrimp/prawns, scallops, lobster pieces, a good white fish, mussels, and clams - in an Anise, or Ouzo, or Sambuca flavoured tomato sauce with fresh lemon zest & juice, which is so good, imo, that you'll be scraping it all up with your slices of fresh french baguette bread.
I've got to organize my thoughts about the ingredients, and how to layer it up, but I'll get around to posting it soon if you wish.

Lamb is terribly expensive here, but I've see some fine big lamb chops at the grocery lately. I'll get some and give myself a treat next week.

As for the Bouillabasse, I can get fresh shrimp, scallops will be frozen and they won't be real shell fish scallops, The lobster will be frozen. The white fish is available fresh. Clams I can only get in a can. If I can find mussels at all, they will be canned. I can get fresh oysters...The tomato sauce has me worried. I know what Anise is, but I don't think I can find it. I've never even heard of the other two options.

God help me. In over my head again...

[LizStreithorst]

Along with what Paul said I suggest searing it first to lock juices in. And it with all the bits on that searing pan you can make a nice sauce with some garlic shallots and red wine. Reduce the wine down until there is just barely anything and remove it from the heat. Then whisk in some butter. There you have a nice buerre rouge to top the lamb with. You can also cook some asparagus in with the wine as it reduces. Makes one hell of a meal!

Got it, Brandon. Will do.

[discuspaul]

Lamb is terribly expensive here, but I've see some fine big lamb chops at the grocery lately. I'll get some and give myself a treat next week.

As for the Bouillabasse, I can get fresh shrimp, scallops will be frozen and they won't be real shell fish scallops, The lobster will be frozen. The white fish is available fresh. Clams I can only get in a can. If I can find mussels at all, they will be canned. I can get fresh oysters...The tomato sauce has me worried. I know what Anise is, but I don't think I can find it. I've never even heard of the other two options.

God help me. In over my head again...

I'll get the full recipe up & posted soon.
But should you ever decide to try it, Liz - that's if you really like seafood - then I can tell you that the tomato sauce is real easy - no need to worry - and if you can get Anise (french) at your liquor store - then that's all you need. The other two - sambuca(italian), and Ouzo(greek) are really the same thing.
And it doesn't matter if the lobster, scallops, & so on, are frozen - you'll still get an excellent result.
And you can alternate the seafood ingredients, or omit some - oysters would be just great - doesn't really matter what you use, as long as you like it.
And you are certainly not over your head - this is actually quite easy to do - just takes a little while.
And yes, I will post it soon.
No doubt Brandon has a recipe for this that can outdo mine - but mine is pretty good, imo & that of my guests. LOL

[LizStreithorst]

I really like seafood, and I will try it. I bet I won't screw it up. My mind's taste buds have the gist of it.

I'll do the lamb in the oven first. Before everything I need to eat up this big pot of jambalaya I made.

I sure do appreciate this education. Imagine me learning to cook on Simply Discus.

[Trier20]

I'll get the full recipe up & posted soon.
But should you ever decide to try it, Liz - that's if you really like seafood - then I can tell you that the tomato sauce is real easy - no need to worry - and if you can get Anise (french) at your liquor store - then that's all you need. The other two - sambuca(italian), and Ouzo(greek) are really the same thing.
And it doesn't matter if the lobster, scallops, & so on, are frozen - you'll still get an excellent result.
And you can alternate the seafood ingredients, or omit some - oysters would be just great - doesn't really matter what you use, as long as you like it.
And you are certainly not over your head - this is actually quite easy to do - just takes a little while.
And yes, I will post it soon.
No doubt Brandon has a recipe for this that can outdo mine - but mine is pretty good, imo & that of my guests. LOL

Lol honestly Paul a lot of what I do I have no recipe and if I do I don't really follow it anyway. Names for dishes just don't appeal to me. I've cooked a lot of things and then find out what they are named! Lol When I cook I look at all the ingredients as ratios. It's a lot easier for me to show you then to explain. For instance when I add salt to something I NEVER measure I see how much I need to correctly season te surface area of whatever I'm cooking. I use this for all the ingredients I use. I hope that makes sense. When I tell people this they look confused but once I show them and explain cooking is much easier. I wish I could get both of you in the kitchen with me. I think that would be too much fun lol

[LizStreithorst]

You wouldn't want me in the kitchen except to watch and listen. I'd be so intimidated I'd screw everything up. I'd watch, listen and try at home where the pressure would be off.

Sometimes the muse comes to me. I look in the fridge, get in the zone, make something up and it comes out just as my mind's taste buds imagined it. Mostly I follow recipes. Sometimes it's good, sometimes I screw up. I always make myself eat it all up, even when it sucks.

Today I'm digging horse **** into my vegetable gardens which are just 2 4X8 raised beds. I'll be able to plant next Sun or Mon. I only planned on growing tomatoes and several varieties of peppers (regular sweet peppers, anchos, and poblanos) but I think I'll devote a 4X4 part to fresh herbs. Fresh is so much better that dried. And straight from the garden is way more flavorful that fresh in a package from the supermarket. I know I want my favorite spice, thyme. Not sure what else I'll put in. I'm not fond of Basil. I like fresh parsley. I stuck two cuttings from a Rosemary bush from a neighbor in the ground this morning. Rosemary straight from the garden is to die for.

Sorry, I went off topic.

[Disgirl]

I just checked in to read all this after Liz pointed it out to me. Now I am hungry for some reason. What a bunch of good recipes here. Paul, Brandon, Toni and Liz, you all are chefs indeed. Yep, cooking lessons on a discus forum! And no beefheart is used.
Barb

[Trier20]

You wouldn't want me in the kitchen except to watch and listen. I'd be so intimidated I'd screw everything up. I'd watch, listen and try at home where the pressure would be off.

Sometimes the muse comes to me. I look in the fridge, get in the zone, make something up and it comes out just as my mind's taste buds imagined it. Mostly I follow recipes. Sometimes it's good, sometimes I screw up. I always make myself eat it all up, even when it sucks.

Today I'm digging horse **** into my vegetable gardens which are just 2 4X8 raised beds. I'll be able to plant next Sun or Mon. I only planned on growing tomatoes and several varieties of peppers (regular sweet peppers, anchos, and poblanos) but I think I'll devote a 4X4 part to fresh herbs. Fresh is so much better that dried. And straight from the garden is way more flavorful that fresh in a package from the supermarket. I know I want my favorite spice, thyme. Not sure what else I'll put in. I'm not fond of Basil. I like fresh parsley. I stuck two cuttings from a Rosemary bush from a neighbor in the ground this morning. Rosemary straight from the garden is to die for.

Sorry, I went off topic.

lmao not a problem. This was your thread! hahah I doubt you'd be intimidated. We all could drink a couple bottles of wine and then cook. It'd be the best meal ever bc we'd be so pissed up we'd never know if it wasn't good.

[LizStreithorst]

I ain't no chef. Not in my wildest dreams. I just like to eat good stuff. I can't buy it so I have to learn how to make it myself. It won't be an easy roe to hoe.

[discuspaul]

BOUILLABAISSE RECIPE

This recipe is easy, but a little time consuming, and the fish ingredients can be somewhat expensive. The stew part without the fish can be made a day ahead, then re-heated & the seafood added just a short time before you're ready to serve it.
For seafood/fish lovers, it's supremely delicious, and worth every dollar.

The key for this recipe is some experimentation - leave some things out, or substitute some other new things.

Here's basically what you'll need to feed 4 to 6 persons -

- 4 to 6 cups of plain tomato sauce - 36 to 48 ozs - (1 & 1/2 to 2 cans - I prefer Hunt's)
- 1 large tbspn of tomato paste
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1/4 cup Anise liquor (or Sambuca, or Ouzo, or Pernod) - (It's not essential to use a licorice flavored liquor - instead you can substitute 1 tspn of crushed dry anise seeds, or crushed fennel seeds, or dried tarragon).
- Optional - 1 oz of brandy or cognac
- Juice of 1 orange, and juice of 1/2 lemon or lime, along with some zest of the lemon or lime, and 3-4 pieces of the orange peel, scraped off thinly with a food scraper.
- 1 small can of clam juice (6-8 oz) or baby clams in water, in which case you would use the juice in the can to add to the soup mixture, and reserve the baby clams to add to the stew later with the rest of the fish.

Other ingredients, dry & misc. (along with Salt & Pepper to taste)

- 1 large, or 2 small shallots, finely sliced or diced
- 3-4 crushed garlic cloves
- 1 tspn of white sugar (or to taste)
- Zest of 1/2 lemon or lime, as mentioned above).
- 1/3 cup finely chopped parsley
- 1/2 tspn each of dry basil, thyme, and oregano
- 1/2 tspn (or less) of red pepper flakes
- 1 Bay leaf, and the pieces of orange peel mentioned above.

AND, if you had it - a good pinch of Saffron would make this dish even more extraordinary !

The seafood/fish:

You can use either frozen or fresh seafood/fish, except if you're planning to use mussels and clams, which should be fresh in the shell.

Thaw the frozen items first. If they are available, get your shrimp or prawns,( and lobster tails), with the shell on. Remove the meat from the shells, and reserve the shells to saute for a few minutes on stovetop with some water and some white wine, keeping the residual liquid to add to the other 'soupy' elements, and then discard the cooked shells. Similarly, if you get a couple of lobster tails with shell on, do the same thing as with the prawn shells. Toss the tail shells in with the prawn shells, saute them for a few minutes, and reserve the residual liquid for adding to the other wet ingredients, as pointed out earlier.

- Approx. 1 lb. (2 dozen) good-sized tiger shrimps or prawns
- 1 dozen large, or sea, scallops
- 2 lobster tails
- 1 & 1/2 dozen each of fresh clams and fresh mussels in the shell. (Rinsed & any beard removed from the mussels).
- Approx. 1 lb of reasonably firm white fish of your choice - examples are monkfish, talapia, snapper, cod, halibut, haddock, sea bass, grouper, mahi-mahi, orange roughey. You can also use salmon if you like.
- Other options you can use are the canned baby clams (as mentioned earlier) - or canned or fresh crab meat of any kind - dungeness, soft shell, stone, snow, alaska king - whatever you can find.

Preparation method:

In a large saucepan or cooking pot, melt a large pad of butter, and saute the diced/slivered shallots over low heat until slightly opaque. Add the crushed garlic and cook for another minute or two.
Then add the dry white wine, and bring to a light boil for a couple of minutes to reduce the wine a bit.
Then add the Anise liquor, and the brandy if you're using that; the clam juice if using it; the orange and lemon juices; all the spices including the crushed fennel or anise if you're using those instead of the licorice-based liquor; the lemon or lime zest; the orange peel; red pepper flakes; the parsley and bay leaf; the sugar; and salt and pepper.

Follow that by adding the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Stir and simmer the entire broth over low/med. heat for 15-20 minutes or so . Then remove the bay leaf, and the pieces of orange peel. You're now ready to add the fish/seafood.

Add the white fish first, cut up into larger than bite-sized pieces (say 2" X 2" or so), then follow that up with the lobster tail meat (cut into bite-sized pieces), all the prawns, the scallops, the baby clams (from the can) if you're using them, along with the crabmeat or any other seafood items you decide to add.

Bring all these ingredients to a low simmer for no more than 10-12 minutes, followed by the last addition, being the mussels & clams in the shell. Cover the pot & simmer the bouilabaisse for another 5 minutes or so (till the shells have opened), and voila, you're ready to serve it up in tureens, or large soup bowls, accompanied by sliced fresh crusty baguette of french bread to soak of the sauce.

This fish stew is absolutely delicious. Serve it with a salad of your choice, and some nice iced dry white wine - it'll be a hit, I can assure you. If your guests are like some of mine (seafood lovers), they'll be dieing to be invited over again for this outstanding dish, and many may want the recipe. Enjoy !